Regulator



Nov. 5, 1940.

A. F. SPITZGLASS El' AL REGULATOR Filed Nov. 19, 1937 l 3 Sheets-Sheet l Nov. 5,- 1940. A. F. sPlTzGLAss ET AL 2,220,180

REGULATOR Filed Nov. 19, 1937 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 l... I I I A I U 74 v y.

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I r G o gi 6o 28 6e 2 3] l o I 40 o 6 I o o 48 .5o 70 64 6 /8 I V I I o o V r 22` h A I 54 J6 Figi 3 42 Nov. 5, 1940. Af F. sPn'zGLAss er Al. 2,220,189

REGULATOR Filed Nov. 19, 1957 s sheets-sheet s Patented Nov. 1940 REGULATOR Aubert F. spuma and ou l 'r. Handwerk. Chicago, lll., assignors to Republic Flow Meters Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Application November 1s, 1937, serial No. 175,44s

. 'J Claims.

This invention relates to regulators andmore particularly to regulators which are adapted to move a control element to positions corresponding to variations in a control force.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide a regulator which is simple and reliable in -its construction and operationv and which is extremely accurate.

Another object ofthe invention-is to provide a l regulator which canreadily be locked in -any desired position. Preferably this is eifected by connecting the motor control mechanism to the motor so that any tendency of the motor to slip or drift will actuate the control mechanism to return it to the desired locked position. Y Y

Another object of the invention is to provide a greatly facilitates calibration. cam may form a permanent part of the regulator V or may serve las a pattern for the formation of a permanent cam. Still another object is to provide a novel method of calibrating a regulator which is simple and quick to carry out and which enables an extremely accura-te calibration to be obtained.

Other objects,l advantages and novelv features of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the accompanying drawings, in

which: 4 Figure 1 is a side view of a regulator embodying the invention; 1

Figure 2 is aview at right angles to Figure 1 with parts in section;

Figure 3 is a diagrammatic view ofthe regulator of Figures 1 and 2;

Fig. 3A is a diagrammatic view on reduced scale illustrating one use of the regulator.

Figure 4 is an enlarged partial section of the valve mechanism of Figure 3 in a plane at right angles to that ligure; Figure' ls a detail view of an adjustable cam; Figure 6 is a diagram: and

Figure 'I is a detail view of the cam illustratr ing its formation.

The regulator comprises a body portion formed ing a condition to becontrolled. This' controlelement may be any suitable valve, rheostat or speed varying means for ,controlling the ilow of a iluid, a motor speed, stoker speed or the like.

55 Admission of actuating i'luid to the opposite pressure.

ends of the cylinder I6 is controlled by a control,` member shown as a spool valve I3 having a centra! inlet pipe 20 for fluid under pressure and va pair of outlet pipes 22 leading to the opposite ends of the cylinder Iii. The valve is so arranged 5 -that when it is in its central position both pipes 22 are closed and movement of the valve one way or the other from center opens one or the other ofthe pipes 22 to the inlet pipe 20.

The upper end ofthe valve engages a lever 24 10 (Figure 4) pivoted on the valve housing and which in turn engages a ilexible diaphragm 26,

the upper surface of which is connected through a restricted orice 2'8 with thesource of fluid The diaphragm carries a hollow stem 15 30 having a bore 3| projecting upwardly through the diaphragm housing and formed at its upper end with a bleed port 32. A- passage 3Ia connects the bore 3| with the space above the diaphragm 26. A suitable Icompression spring 33 20 acts on the lowerend of thevalve and tends to balance the downward force of the diaphragm 26.

The bleed port 32 iscontrolled by means sensitive to a controlling force shown as consisting of avalve stern 34 rigidly connected to a diaphragm 25 36, the upper surface of which is subject to the pressure inl a pipe "36. As the valve stem 34 moves down to restrict the bleed port 32, pressure on the upper surface of the diaphragm 36 over-balances the' spring 33 and moves the valve 30 i8 downwardly. If the valve stem moves away from the bleed port to decrease the restriction thereof, the spring 33 will urge the valve I8 upwardly, A

The diaphragm 36 is adapted to be loaded by 35 a controlling pressure which may be responsive to a result to be produced, as for example the steam pressure in a boiler or the like. As shownl in Figure 3, the loading pressure is manually controlled so that the regulator can be set by o hand from a remote point to produce any desiredsetting of the control element. The means illustrated for so controlling the loading pressure includes a housing 40'connected to the pipe 36 and to a lluid pressure supply pipe 42. Admission of 5 iluid from the pipe 42 to the housing is controlled by valve 44 connected to a exible diaphragm 46 which tends to urge the valve onto its seat. The diaphragm isopposed by a com- Y, pression spring 43 "engageable at one end with a 50 collar on they diaphragm and at its opposite end with a collar 50. The collar 50 is screw threaded on a rod 62 and is held from rotation by a ilange 64 engaging a suitable notch therein. The rod 6 2 may be turned by a hand wheel 66 to* move 55 the collar 66, thereby to adjust the tension of spring 48. Since the spring 48 must be balanced by diaphragm 46, this arrangement serves to control the pressure in the chamber 48, which acts l on the diaphragm 36, Preferably the chamber l40 is provided with a small bleed opening 58 vto enable escape of uid therefrom. A manometer gage 69 is. preferably connected to the pipe 38 to indicate the loading pressure. The supply pipe 42 is shown connected directly to the central inlet pipe 28 and to the orifice 28.

Loading pressure on the diaphragm 36 is balanced according to the present invention by yielding means shown as a leafr spring 60 carried by a pivotally mounted carriage 62, as more particularly described and claimed in the copending application of Otto T. Handwerk, Serial No. 162502, led September 4, 1937, and issued as Patent No. 2,156,496 on May 2, 1939. The carriage 62 has secured thereto a cam lever 64 engageable with a roller 66 on a pivoted arm 68. 'I'he arm 68 is mounted on a cross shaft 69 which carries a second arm 10 connected through a link 12 with a bracket 14 which` is rigidly secured to the piston rod I4.

In operation, the hand wheel l56 is adjusted to produce the desired loading pressure, as indicated on gage 59, this loading pressure acting on diaphragm 46 to urge the valve stem'34 downwardly. If the position of the piston I2 is such as to tension `spring 68 an amount equal to the loading force on diaphragm 36, no movement will be produced. However, if the tension on spring 60 is not enough to balance the loading force, the valve stem 34 will move downwardly to restrict the bleed port 32, thereby increasing the downward pressure'on the diaphragm 26.

. This will cause the valve I8 to move downwardly,

connecting inlet pipe 20 to the lower outlet pipe 40 22 and admitting fluid pressure to the upper end of cylinder I8 above the piston I2. The piston I2 will now move downwardly, clianging'the set-l ting of the control element and at the same time rocking levers 10 and 68 counterclockwise.

45 Through engagement of the roller 66 with the Thus the piston I2 and the control element will always occupy a position which corresponds to the loading pressure in the chamber 40.

Fig. 3A illustrates an application of the invention to the automatic regulation of pressure in a conduit. As shown, a conduit 90 through which fluid under pressure is adapted to now is provided with a butterfly valve 92 having an arm 94 connected through a link 96 to the clevis I6 on the piston rod I4. I'he upper side of the control diaphragm 36' is connected through a pipe 98 to the conduit 90 anterior to the valve 92.

In operation if the pressure in the conduit 90 rises above the desired point, the diaphragm 36 will be depressed to restrict the bleed opening 32 and move the valve I8 downwardly. This will admit fluid pressure to the upper side of the power piston l2 to move the rod' I4 downwardly thereby opening the valve 92. When the valve '92 is opened, flow through the conduit 90 will increase to reduce the pressure therein. Upon 'a drop of pressure in the conduit 98 below thel ldesired valve, the above action will .be reversed to eifect a further closing of the valve 92.

According to an important feature .of the invention, means are provided for locking the regulator in any desired position,l as for instance during calibration o r when Ait isdesired forl some other reason that the control'element remain stationary. This may be affected by providing a plate 16 on the shaft 69 which carries levers 68 and 10. 'Iheplate is formed with an arcuatevslot in which a bolt 18 is normally slidable. The bolt v16 carries a thumb piece 80 by which it may be tightened into clamping engagement with the plate 16, and has its end engaging a socket in the free end of the lever 24.

Normally the plate 16 may slide freely relatively to the bolt 18, and there is no connection between the plate and the lever 24.` However,

when the thumb piece 80 is screwedup, the bolt 18 is rigidly locked Ito the plate and the plate and lever 24 are rigidly connected. This will prevent any movement of valve I8, and if there shouldbe any tendency for the piston I2 to shift or drift, valve I8 will be moved thereby in a-direction to return the piston to the desired position. For example, if the piston I2 should move downwardly, the valve I8 will be moved up to admit fluid pressure to the bottom end of the cylinder I and move the pistonup until the valve is again centered. l l

Figure illustrates an adjustable cam which may be used as a permanent part of the regulator, but which is preferably employed to obtain accurate adjustment and/is thereafter replaced by a permanent cam. As shown, the cam includes an arm 82 secured to the spring carriage Y62 and carrying a plurality of screws 84 spaced along its length. A flexible strip 86 is carried by the arm and overlies the ends of the screws 84. It will be apparent that by proper adjustment of the screws 84, substantially any desired shape of the strip 86 can be obtained to give vthe regulator any desired characteristic.

Figure 6 is a diagram in which piston travel is plottedhorizontally against loading pressure vertically. It is normally desirable to obtain a straight line relationship between the loading pressure and the condition being controlled, but Y this is not always possible if the loading pres-- sure and piston travel are directly proportional since the control element may not have a straight shape for a condition in which the'loading pressure is proportional to the square of the piston travel and the lower curve VE represents the cam shape necessary if the loading pressure is proportional to the square root of the piston travel.` Normally some cam shape intermediate the two outer curves is required for the'particular control element, and there has been illustrated by Way of example one such cam shape shown by the dotted line c. This cam shape roughly approximates a sine curve and illustrates the approximate cam shape required for a buttery type control valve to maintain area opening controlled by the valve proportionately to the load pressure.

Figure 7 illustrates these same curves laid out on a cam arm similar to the cam arm 64 of Figure 3. It will be noted that the -curve a becomes generally arcuate .and that the cam shape Y value; i. e. one-fourth" maximum. .In the case of a ilow control valve this means that the valve lwill be so set that the ow is one-fourth of the maximum regardless of whether the valve is`more values and adjusting the cam to give the desired relationship the cam shape can readily be determined. Another and perhaps preferable way is'to set the control element and piston in a predetermined position such as to give for example one-fourth maximum flow and lock the regulator by tightening the nut 80. The loading pressure may then be adjusted to a corresponding.

value; i. e. one-fourth maximum, and the cam adjusted until the diaphragm 3E is'balanced.

The present invention also Vprovides a novel method for calibrating the regulator through the ,use of a cani of the type illustrated in Figure 5 in conjunction with the novel locking mecha- 30 nism 'I6 to 80. According to'this method the piston I2 is adjusted to a`position to give a known value of the condition to be controlled andthe loadingpressure is set to a correspondingvalue. The regulator is locked in this posiftion and the set screws M on the adjustable cam are moved until the spring lll balances .the loading force gon diaphragm I8. This operation is repeated for a number of positions and values until the strip 8l 01:1 the adjustable cam is given a shape whichfwill produce the Vdesired control onthe control element. 'I'he adjustable cam is then removedfrom the regulator and is replaced by a permanent cam having exactlythe same conguration. In this way a very accurate calibration of the regulator is obtained quickly and easily so that the loading pressure will always be proportional to the value of the condition as regulated bythe particular control element.'

While only one embodiment of the invention has been shown and described in detail. it is not intended that the scope of this invention be liml ited to the form-shown or otherwise than by the terms of the appended 1 What'is claimedlis:

55 part moved bypower and adapted-to move a control element, a movable Vmember for controlling the motor, a sensitive element for controlling said member, and means for connecting said' member rigidly to said part to lock the regulator regardless of operation oi' the sensitive element.

2. A.regulator comprising a,motor having a part moved by power and adapted to move a' that the -condition'vvill be given a corresponding Yor less than one-fourth open. By selecting other 1. A regulator comprising amotor-havinga control element, a movable member for controlling the motor, a sensitive elementiurgedin one direction by a control force for controlling said member, yielding means connectedv to said part for urging said sensitive elementfin the other direction, and means operable at will for rigidly connecting said member to said partvto lock the regulator.

3. A regulator comprising a motor cylinder, a piston slidable in said cylinder and adapted to be connected to a control element, a valve for controlling admission of pressure duid to said cylby a. control force and controlling the valve,1

yielding means connected to the piston for urging the sensitive element in the other direction,

and means for rigidly connecting the valve to-the piston forlocking the regulator.

4. A regulator comprising a motor cylinder, a piston slidable in said cylinder and-adapted to be connected to a control, element, a valve for controlling admission of pressure iiuid to said cylinder, a sensitive elemen't urged in one direction by a control forcejand controlling the valve, a pivoted arm connected tothe piston to be moved thereby, yieldinglvl means controlled by other direction, and means for connecting said` arm to the valve to lock' the regulator.

5. A regulator comprising a motor cylinder, a. piston slidable in said cylinder and adapted to be connected to 'a control element, a valve for controlling admission of pressure uid `to said cylinder, a sensitive element urged in one direction by a control force and controlling the valve, a pivoted arm connected to the piston to be moved thereby, a pivotally.,y mounted spring engaging the sensitive element, and cam means connecting the arm 'and the spring.

6.- A regulatorcompxising a -motor cylinder, a piston slidable in said cylinder and adapted to be connected to a control element, a valve for controlling admission of pressure iiuid to said cylinder, a diaphragm connected to said valve,Y

means for conducting pressure fluid to one side of the diaphrgam for urging the valve in one direction, means providing a bleed port from said one side oi the diaphragm, resilient means urg ing the valvel in the other direction, a second diaphragm responsive to a control force urging it iione dlr/ection, means carried by the Vsecond Adiaphragm for controlling said bleed port, spring -means urging the second diaphragm in the other direction, and cam means operated by the pismeans, a pivoted arm connected to the motor for resetting said spring as the motor moves to difteientmomtions, and means for connecting said arm rigidly to the valve to lock the regulator.

, ALBERT F. SPITLGLASS.

the motor, sensitive means control- 

